Introduction

In the encyclical prepared for the Great Jubilee 2000, The Advent of the third Millennium, Pope John Paul II introduced the idea of preserving the memory of Christians who died for their faith during the 20th Century.
In our own century the martyrs have returned, many of them nameless, "unknown soldiers," as it were, of God's great cause. As far as possible, their witness should not be lost to the Church. (TM 37)
In response to this appeal a commission was established at the Vatican which has gathered and catalogued the stories of more than twelve thousand Christians world wide who died for the faith during the 20th Century. It does not deal with the process of beatification or canonization, but recalls the accounts of Christians who were killed because they were Christian.
“The history of their murders is the story of their weakness and their defeat. Nevertheless these Christians in spite of their weaknesses displayed a special moral and spiritual strength of character: They did not renounce their faith, their convictions, their service to others, or the Church in order to save their lives or assure their survival.
In extreme weakness and at great risk they demonstrated tremendous strength. This is in reality the history of Christianity. On this Christians of the 21st century are called to reflect in order to emulate their strength of faith. Such a reflection will also force us to a clearer understanding of the history of the past century (Andrea Riccardi, Il secolo dei martiri, p. 12).
The SCJ Family is a part of this reality. March 11, 2001, was the beatification of Fr. Juan Maria de la Cruz García Méndez, SCJ (1891-1936), a joyous occasion and one that should fill SCJs with gratitude. However, Fr. Méndez is not the only SCJ martyr of the XXth century. In the following chapters we will recount the stories of various dehonians who gave witness to the power of weakness in their Christianity. Thus, we try to respond to the invitation of our general superior, Fr. Virginio Bressanelli :
"to draw up, as some Provinces have already done, a biographical memorial of those more outstanding figures amongst our brothers and sisters who can serve as models and encouragement for us in living out more sincerely the vocation and mission which is ours in the Church and world of our day (Prot. N. 286/2000)."

Spain 1936

Father Juan María de la Cruz, SCJ

Martyr of the Religious Persecution during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939)
"God's Blessings! Let all things be done according to the divine will. I am very happy to be able to suffer with Him, because He suffered so much for me, a poor sinner."
(Letter from Fr. Mendez, a few days before his death).
The life and martyrdom of Fr. Mendez, SCJ, introduces us to a dark chapter in modern Spanish history -- the religious persecution during the Civil War from 1936 to 1939.
Mariano García Méndez was born on September 25, 1891, in San Esteban de los Patos in the Province of Avila, the firstborn of 15 children. After his seminary training, he was ordained a priest for the diocese of Avila. His deep desire to lead a life of greater perfection led him toward religious life, but his first steps in this direction failed due to his poor health.
After his novitiate at Novelda (Alicante), Fr. Mendez made his first profession on October 31, 1926 and took the religious name of Fr. Juan María de la Cruz. Enjoying limited success as teacher in the minor seminary at Novelda, he became a fundraiser in 1929, begging for money in villages and market towns and looking for young students to direct to the congregation's minor seminary.
The Civil War, opposing nationalists and republicans, broke out on July 18, 1936. In this context, on July 23, 1936, Fr. Juan traveled to Valencia seeking to find refuge with one of the congregation's benefactors. "While traveling from the train station to the home of Señora Pilar, he passed by the church of 'de los Juanes' in the center of the city. He was horrified by 'a horrible spectacle' -- his own words -- when he saw men ripping apart the church interior and preparing to burn down the church. He could not stand by in silence. Fr. Juan did not hide his disdain at seeing the church torched. When the evildoers said to each other: 'He's a reactionary!' He responded 'No, I am a priest!' The republicans there upon arrested him and took him to jail Modelo of Valencia.”
Afterwards, witnesses recalled that Fr. Juan led an exemplary priestly life in prison. He remained faithful to his religious practices, cared for other's pastoral needs as he prepared for martyrdom. On the night of August 23-24, 1936 together with nine other prisoners, Fr. Juan was taken south of Valencia to be shot. On August 24th the bodies of the victims were thrown into a common grave in the cemetery of Silla." (Bothe, 20th Century SCJ Martyrs, p 14).
On March 11, 2001, Pope John Paul II has declared him blessed along with other Spanish Martyrs.

Germany 1941

Fr. Franz Loh, scj
Victim of the Nazi Struggles againsts Religious Life

"Fr. Loh did not hold up well under incarceration. The harshness of prison life combined with his diabetic condition led to a quick death only a few days after the community had learned where he had been taken. Fr. Loh died on March 20, 1941. His body was released to the community. Fr. Schunck , who had followed him as provincial superior, had him vested in red vestments in his coffin. It was forbidden to give a homily, enforced by two members of the Gestapo. The scjs left the the grave side greatly shaken." (Bothe, Dehoniana 2000/3, p. 111).
Martin Bormann, one of the prominent Nazis, wrote in 1930: "National Socialist and Christian concepts are incompatible. All structures which influence people which in any way could weaken or impair the Führer and the National Socialist Party, must be eliminated." (The Century of Martyrs, Riccardi, p. 79)
Though religious communities appeared weak in the eyes of the Nazis (compared to the hierarchy), they soon proved to be even more inflexible, and thus drew the attention of National Socialists. In 1935 the National Socialists enacted strict exchange restrictions which affected religious congregations, including The Priests of the Sacred Heart. Fr. Franz Loh, provincial superior from 1932 to 1936 quickly understood the future of the congregation in Germany was at stake. Since it was not possible to save the house at Sittard by legal means he resorted to sending it funds secretly.
In 1935, after Fr. Philippe had been made bishop " he came to Sittard in order to ordain the deacon class of the German province to the priesthood. On the day after their ordination the house received frightful news. The German secret police (Gestapo) had discovered all. A German laybrother who had Nazi leanings had turned them in." (Bothe, Dehoniana 2000/3, p. 80)
In April of 1936 a trial took place at Krefeld. Some of the accused scjs were already in prison while others like Fr. Loh were fugitives. Thirteen scjs were fined and sentenced to prison. Fr. Loh, as chief executive officer, was condemned to four years in prison at forced labor, four years loss of civil rights, and a fine of 500,000 marks.
After the invasion of Luxemburg by the Germans Fr. Loh was discovered on December 10, 1940 and immediately arrested and was first sent to Rheinbach/Bonn and then to the Dusseldorf prison infirmary. "He did not hold up well under incarceration. The harshness of prison life combined with his diabetic condition led to a quick death only a few days after the community had learned where he had been taken. Fr. Loh died on March 20, 1941. His body was released to the community. Fr. Schunck , who had followed him as provincial superior, had him vested in red vestments in his coffin. It was forbidden to give a homily, enforced by two members of the Gestapo. The scjs left the the grave side greatly shaken. Shortly before his death Fr. Loh had confided to one of his conferrers the he wanted to offer up his lonely death for the communities of the congregation." (Bothe, Dehoniana 2000/3, p. 111).

Austria 1942

Fr. Wampach e Fr. Stoffels
Victims of Nazi Terror:

"I am in the hands of God; a Catholic priest must always be proud to carry and share in the cross of Our Master. My consolation lies in prayer and in union with God and, certainly, in your love for me."
(Dachau Concentration Camp May 3, 1942, Fr. Stoffels wrote in a letter to his sister.)
The two SCJ priests Joseph Benedict Stoffels (born in 1895) and Nicolas Anthony Wampachw (born in 1909) were sent to minister to Luxemburgers in Paris near where the future parish of St. Joseph the Worker would be established.
"In 1940 after the invasion of Luxemburg by the Germans, many Luxemburgers fled to Paris where these two SCJs, together with a diocesan priest, helped the refugees. After the fall of France, they helped many in their quest to return to Luxemburg. In a journal it is written: 'In this purely charitable work ... the Gestapo (the Nazi Secret Police) suspected espionage.' After several interrogations toward the end of 1940, the two priests were finally arrested on March 7, 1941, and sent to Buchenwald. They were transferred to Dachau on September 21, 1941.
The official story is that they died of bronchitis or angina. The family of Fr. Stoffels was sent his ashes. As happened in many similar cases, the funerals were held under the surveillance of the Gestapo on August 31, 1942, almost secretly, without bells, songs or participation by parishioners.
"Only after forty years of research has it been learned that the two SCJ priests were gassed at Hartheim Castle in Austria together with two other priests from Luxemburg. Hartheim is about 165 miles from Dachau in a tiny region of Austria called Alkoven. Here a chamber was constructed to experiment with different types of gas. The trip from Dachau to Hartheim took about four hours. The windows of the van were blacked out and it was officially designated as an ambulance. In the castle the procedures were the same as in other concentration camps. The prisoners were striped of everything. Under the pretext that they were to be photographed they were led to the 'showers' in which gas issued from the shower heads ." (Bothe, p. 21)
Hartheim Castle is a fine example of a Renaissance castle. Under the Nazis it had various uses. It was an integral part of the Nazi euthanasia program. Sick and disabled people were sent here for cruel experimentation and then gassed. In this context Fr. Stoffels, who had suffered from a number of illnesses especially respiratory infections, was transferred to Hartheim under the pretense that he was an invalid.
Fr. Stoffels was murdered in one of the gas chambers on May 25,1942. Fr. Wampach on August 12,1942.

Italy 1944

Fr. Martino Capelli, SCJ

In the Salvaro cemetary, there are markers to Don Elia and to Fr. Martino: in tribute to their witness as pastors of Monte Sole: There is no greater love than to give one's own life Father Nicholas Martino Capelli revealed this in the way he lived and in the magnitude of his simple martyr's death.
After hearing a conference on the martyrs in Mexico shortly after taking his first vows in 1931, Nicola Martino Capelli wrote: "O Virgin of the Mexican martyrs, allow me also one day to be a martyr for Christ the King and for you, Immaculate Virgin. O mother I write you still touched by the conference given on the Mexican martyrs. I am sure that through the intercession of your martyrs you will grant me this wish. Your son, Frater Martino Capelli." (Missionario mancato Ü martire esaudito: P. Martino Capelli, SCJ, SCJ Postulator's Office, Bologna 1996)
He had great Marian devotion and dreamed of becoming a missionary. He had great intellectual capacity and developed an enthusiasm for pastoral work when he was called to help the priests in the area around Castiglione.
On July 20th,Fr. Capelli left for Salvaro to help Monsignor Mellini, the former pastor. There he met a Silesian, Don Elia Comini and the two became fast friends until death.
On September 29, 1944, answering the call to aid the wounded, Fr. Capelli and Fr.Comini were arrested by the Germans as spies. At first the soldiers used them to transport their ammunition up and down the mountain under escort. They were then imprisoned along with a large group of other partisans in a stable belonging to a rope factory in Pioppe di Salvaro. After two days of cruel imprisonment on Sunday October 1, Frs. Capelli and Comini along with 44 other partisans were led to the so-called "vault" of the rope factory where they were cut down by machine gun fire from the Nazi SS. A few were able to pretend death under the stack of bodies and saved themselves by waiting until the German soldiers departed. One of them was able to recount the last gesture of Fr. Martin Capelli. Wounded and dying, he raised his arm said a few words and a blessing and then fell with arms extended in the form of the cross. He was 32 years old.
All traces of him and the others who were executed were lost when water-tight dam bulkheads were opened and their bodies were washed into the Reno River. "One Day, O mother, we will meet at my martyr's death." (Fr. Capelli in his Consecration to the Immaculate Virgin).

Germany 1945

Fr. Kristiaan Hubertus Muermans (1909 - 1945)
Little Known Resistance Fighter

"He was busy with the resistance press and helped many young people to go underground in order to prevent the Gestapo from arresting them and sending them off to labor camps. When the Gestapo learned of this, he was arrested right in front of his pupils’ eyes! After several days incarceration in Brussels he was successively transferred to various concentration camps: Buchenwald, Ellrich, Harzungen and Dora where he died on February 12, 1945, only a few weeks before the camp was liberated by the American army."
" Responding to a call rooted in the humiliation of his homeland, he operated in several resistance groups. In May 1944 he fell into the hands of the Gestapo, who took him away forever." (Sint Unum, 1947)
Born on March 9, 1909 in Hees Bilzen, Beligum, Kristiaan Muermans made his first profession in 1928 and was ordained a priest in 1933 at Louvain. The following year he was teaching in our school at Tervuren and remained there for several years. At the outbreak of World War II he was called up to active military duty.
According to a letter sent to Fr. Bothe by his brother, Wim Muermans, when Fr. Kristiaan Muermans returned to Beligum he became active in the resistance.
"He was busy with the resistance press and helped many young people to go underground in order to prevent the Gestapo from arresting them and sending them off to labor camps. When the Gestapo learned of this, he was arrested right in front of his pupils’ eyes! After several days incarceration in Brussels he was successively transferred to various concentration camps: Buchenwald, Ellrich, Harzungen and Dora where he died on February 12, 1945, only a few weeks before the camp was liberated by the American army." (cf. Bernd Bothe, SCJ Martyrs of the XXth Century, p. 31).
We now know that Fr. Muermans died near Blankenburg in one of the 40 sub-camps of the Mittlebau-Dora Concentration camp. From 1943 to 1945 Dora produced arms for the Germany Army, especially rockets. These arms were produced in an immense underground factory, the largest of its kind up until then. The size of this underground factory is hard to comprehend. An enormous tunnel stretched for 20 km (12.43 miles) and was 30 m (98.43 ft) high. There some 60,000 prisoners from Mittlebau-Dora camps worked as slaves, some 20,000 of whom died, including Fr. Muermans. The circumstances of his death remain obscure.
Fr. Muermans left us no writings. There was only his commitment in the resistance to young people which cost him his life, as these words by André Jarlan, himself murdered in Chile in 1984, describe:
"Those truly alive are those who offer their life, not those who take it from others. For us the Resurrection is not a myth but a reality. This event we celebrate in each Eucharist encourages us in the conviction that the giving of oneself is worthwhile, and it challenges us to do so!" (cf. 20thCentury Martyrs, Riccardi, p. 23; Cf. Bernard Bothe, SCJ Martyrs of the XXth Century, p. 29-35)